The three ministers could soon embark on a visit to Damascus similar to their Tehran trip

LONDON, December 23 (IslamOnline.net) – The European Union's big three might pressure Syria into giving up its weapons program in swap for closer ties with the expanding bloc, a mass-circulation British daily reported Tuesday, December 23.

Britain is seeking a joint action with Germany and France to coax Damascus into inking the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and doing more to stop infiltrators into Iraqi territories, The Guardian said.

The plan is modeled on a similar tripartite effort which persuaded Iran to accept nuclear inspections, it noted.

After months of slog between the trio and Tehran, the latter agreed on December 18 to sign up to an addendum to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which allows snap visits by U.N. weapons inspectors.

If diplomatic efforts with Syria proved successful, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and his French and German counterparts, Dominique de Villepin and Joschka Fischer, would visit Damascus together, mirroring their joint mission to Tehran this year.

The move would be part of what British officials call European "trilateralism",  which produced breakthrough on E.U. defense and joint economic initiatives as well as the Iranian success, said the paper.

This comes after Libya's dramatic announcement that it had agreed to scrap its WMDs programs "immediately and unconditionally" following marathon and secret talks with Anglo-American intelligence officials.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi told CNN late Monday, December 22, that his government had taken "corrective" action in renouncing its weapons program.

He said that nations such as North Korea, Iran and Syria, suspected of having nuclear arms, should follow its lead.

The U.S. has kept Syria on its blacklist of alleged state sponsoring terrorism and has accused it of developing WMDs.

U.S. President George W. Bush on December 12 signed into law a bill authorizing economic and diplomatic sanctions on Syria over its alleged support for "terrorism" and "occupation" of Lebanese territories.